4B SPORTS
TRACK & FIELD
THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2009
Pole vaulter places third in national championships
BY JASON BAKER
jbaker@kansan.com
For his spring break vacation.
junior Jordan
Scott did what he
loved: pole vaulting.
"I'd compete in the pole vault on any spring break," Scott said.
While the Kansas track and
"I'm not upset about it, but I could've done better."
field team was preparing for the upcoming outdoor track season, Scott traveled to College Station, Texas, to compete at the NCAA Indoor National Championships on March 13.
Scott was Kansas' sole representative. He competed against 13 of the best collegiate pole vaulters in the country and placed third overall with a best jump of 5.45 meters.
Scott said his performance that day wasn't an ideal one.
JORDAN SCOTT Junior pole vaulter
"I'm not upset about it, but I could've done better," he said.
Scott cleared the 5.45-meter mark several times this season, but said that the main thing was using the right pole at the right
time. Scott said he had difficulty matching the right pole with the bar in order to have a successful jump.
He also said his strategy of which jumps to attempt was a factor in his performance. In the pole vault, the athlete has the option of passing on different jumps.
If they do choose to attempt to clear a
mark, they have three consecutive chances to clear it before being eliminated.
Scott cleared 5.45 meters on his
while the second place finisher, junior Yavgeniy Olhovsky of Virginia Tech, cleared it on his first attempt. Had Scott cleared on his first attempt, he would have
he would have tied for second place.
Junior Jason Colwick of Rice University won first place with a jump of 5.60 meters.
said of Colwick. "He will definitely be a threat at outdoors."
Scott may not have been happy with his performance, but he said he was glad his performance was beneficial to the team.
"He jumped really well," Scott
Scott's performance earned the team six points and 33rd overall place in the men's overall standings.
"He jumped really well. He will definitely be a threat at outdoors."
Scott earned his second All-American Honors. Scott said he felt as though he earned it this time around. The top eight places received All-American Honors.
Last year, Scott placed ninth but received the title on a technicality because one of the top eight wasn't
JORDAN SCOTT
Junior pole vaulter
American.
With the indoor season now over, Scott and the rest of the layhawks will focus on competing in the outdoor season, which will begin this weekend as the team travels to Columbia, Mo., to the Missouri Relays 27 to 28.
Edited by Liz Schubauer
compete in the Missouri Relays from March 27 to 28.
Jordan Scott, Watkinsville, Ga., junior, practices the pole vault in the Anschutz Sports Pavilion in late February. Scott took third in the NCAA National Indoor Championships on March 13.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
NCAA TOURNAMENT
Freshman Kim English makes key plays in Mizzou victory
BY EDDIE PELLS Associated Press
BOISE, Idaho — Four unbelievable minutes. Two gargantuan free throws.
over Marquette in the NCAA tournament.
Freshman Kim English came off the bench to "pinch shoot" for injured J.T. Tiller and made two free throws with 5.5 seconds left Sunday to give Missouri the goahead points in an 83-79 victory
It was quite an encore for English, who had an out-of-body $4 \frac{1}{2} $ - minute shooting spree in the first half, scoring 15 points and helping third-seeded Mizzou (30-6) turn a six-point deficit into a 16-point lead.
English was on the bench for most of the second half, watching sixth-seeded Marquette chip
away at the lead and eventually go ahead.
But when Tiller fell hard and hurt his right wrist after being fouled with the score tied at 79, coach Mike Anderson took advantage of the college rule that allows teams to substitute for an injured free-throw shooter.
He chose English, who made both.
"I'm so happy that he had faith
in me to get up there and knock them down," English said. "I think anybody on the bench would've knocked them down, actually."
After the English free throws, Marquette's Lazar Hayward stepped over the baseline on the ensuing inbounds pass, and the Golden Eagles (25-10) were forced to foul. Leo Lyons made two more free throws to ice the game and Missouri moved on to the West Regional
semifinals to play Memphis.
It ruined a wonderful effort from Marquette senior Jerel McNeal, who matched his career high with 30 points, and Wesley Matthews, who scored 24.
It also brought lusty boos from the Marquette fans and others in the crowd, especially when they saw Tiller re-enter the game a second later to help the Tigers run out the clock.
What they may not have known was that Tiller was a 76 percent free-throw shooter coming into the tournament while English, icing on the bench for most of the second half, shot only 65 percent.
"I knew, right when I looked at him, if coach chose him he was going to knock 'em down," teammate Matt Lawrence said.
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